Human impacts on weather and climate

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As the world's population rises, there is increasing evidence that human activities are having a significant impact on the weather and climate, from a local to global scale. Human Impacts on Weather and Climate is a non-mathematical presentation of the basic physical concepts of how human activity may affect weather and climate. This book assesses the current hypotheses, and examines whether the impacts are measurable. Included are: critical evaluations of the scientific status of weather modification by cloud seeding; human impacts on regional weather and climate; and human impacts on global climate, including the greenhouse gas hypothesis. Discussions also focus on the modern philosophy of science and its application to determining human impacts on weather and climate. Human Impacts on Weather and Climate will be invaluable for upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses in meteorology, geophysics, and earth and atmospheric science, as well as for policymakers and readers with an interest in how humans are affecting the atmosphere. An extensive reference list is included.

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Choice Review

This book's title is a good summary of its contents. In 12 chapters authors Cotton and Pielke review attempts to modify weather; the effect of urban settings on climate; and the physical effects that govern climate (clouds, solar energy inputs, etc.). They then apply these concepts to theories of nuclear winter and greenhouse warming. The writing is clear and easy to follow. No math is used, but the level of explanation is high through the use of graphs and many good diagrams. The book was prepared in 1992, and its extensive bibliography was not updated to 1995, an unfortunate omission in such a rapidly expanding field. There is only passing reference to the ozone depletion problem, another unfortunate omission in a book on the topic of human impact on climate. Appropriate for those in fields outside meteorology who seek an understanding of climatic factors important in determining average temperature. Upper-division undergraduate; graduate; two-year technical program students. T. T. Arny; University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Part I The rise and fall of the science of weather modification by cloud seeding	p. 1
1 The rise of the science of weather modification by cloud seeding	p. 3
1.1 Project Cirrus	p. 5
2 The glory years of weather modification	p. 9
2.1 Introduction	p. 9
2.2 The static mode of cloud seeding	p. 9
2.3 The dynamic mode of cloud seeding	p. 20
2.3.1 Introduction	p. 20
2.3.2 Fundamental concepts	p. 20
2.4 Modification of warm clouds	p. 32
2.4.1 Introduction	p. 32
2.4.2 Basic physical concepts of precipitation formation in warm clouds	p. 33
2.4.3 Strategies for enhancing rainfall from warm clouds	p. 36
2.5 Hail suppression	p. 40
2.5.1 Introduction	p. 40
2.5.2 Basic concepts of hailstorms and hail formation	p. 41
2.5.3 Hail suppression concepts	p. 56
2.5.4 Field confirmation of hail suppression techniques	p. 61
2.6 Modification of tropical cyclones	p. 63
2.6.1 Basic conceptual model of hurricanes	p. 63
2.6.2 The Stormfury modification hypothesis	p. 65
2.6.3 Stormfury field experiments	p. 65
3 The fall of the science of weather modification by cloud seeding	p. 67
Part II Inadvertent human impacts on regional weather and climate	p. 73
4 Anthropogenic emissions of aerosols and gases	p. 75
4.1 Cloud condensation nuclei and precipitation	p. 75
4.2 Aircraft contrails	p. 82
4.3 Ice nuclei and precipitation	p. 85
4.4 Other pollution effects	p. 86
4.5 Dust	p. 87
4.5.1 Direct radiative forcing	p. 87
4.5.2 Indirect effects of dust	p. 88
5 Urban-induced changes in precipitation and weather	p. 90
5.1 Introduction	p. 90
5.2 Urban increases in CCN and IN concentrations and spectra	p. 91
5.3 The glaciation mechanism	p. 92
5.4 Impact of urban land use on precipitation and weather	p. 93
5.4.1 Observed cloud morphology and frequency	p. 97
5.4.2 Clouds and precipitation deduced from radar studies	p. 97
6 Other land-use/land-cover changes	p. 102
6.1 Landscape effects	p. 102
6.1.1 Surface effects	p. 102
6.1.2 Boundary-layer effects	p. 108
6.1.3 Local wind circulations	p. 111
6.1.4 Vertical perspective	p. 112
6.1.5 Mesoscale and regional horizontal perspective	p. 112
6.2 Influence of irrigation	p. 118
6.2.1 Colorado	p. 118
6.2.2 Nebraska	p. 121
6.3 Dryland agriculture: Oklahoma	p. 131
6.4 Desertification	p. 131
6.4.1 Historical overview	p. 131
6.4.2 North Africa	p. 132
6.4.3 Western Australia	p. 132
6.4.4 Middle East	p. 133
6.5 Deforestation	p. 135
6.5.1 Historical perspective	p. 135
6.5.2 Amazon	p. 135
6.5.3 Africa	p. 137
6.6 Regional vegetation feedbacks	p. 138
6.7 Conclusion	p. 144
7 Concluding remarks regarding deliberate and inadvertent human impacts on regional weather and climate	p. 148
Part III Human impacts on global climate	p. 151
8 Overview of global climate forcings and feedbacks	p. 153
8.1 Overview	p. 153
8.2 Atmospheric radiation	p. 155
8.2.1 Absorption and scattering by gases	p. 156
8.2.2 Absorption and scattering by aerosols	p. 158
8.2.3 Absorption and scattering by clouds	p. 159
8.2.4 Global energy balance and the greenhouse effect	p. 160
8.2.5 Changes in solar luminosity and orbital parameters	p. 161
8.2.6 Natural variations in aerosols and dust	p. 165
8.2.7 Surface properties	p. 165
8.2.8 Assessment of the relative radiative effect of carbon dioxide and water vapor	p. 166
8.3 Climate feedbacks	p. 174
8.3.1 Water vapor feedbacks	p. 174
8.3.2 Cloud feedbacks	p. 176
8.3.3 Surface albedo feedbacks	p. 179
8.3.4 Ocean feedbacks	p. 180
8.4 Views of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Research Council of climate forcings	p. 181
9 Climatic effects of anthropogenic aerosols	p. 187
9.1 Introduction	p. 187
9.2 Direct aerosol effects	p. 188
9.3 Aerosol impacts on clouds: the Twomey effect	p. 192
9.4 Aerosols in mixed-phase clouds and climate	p. 198
9.5 Aerosols, deep convection, and climate	p. 201
10 Nuclear winter	p. 203
10.1 Introduction	p. 203
10.2 The nuclear winter hypothesis: its scientific basis	p. 205
10.2.1 The war scenarios	p. 205
10.2.2 Smoke production	p. 206
10.2.3 Vertical distribution of smoke	p. 207
10.2.4 Scavenging and sedimentation of smoke	p. 208
10.2.5 Water injection and mesoscale responses	p. 210
10.2.6 Other mesoscale responses	p. 212
10.2.7 Global climatic responses	p. 213
10.2.8 Biological effects	p. 216
10.3 Summary of the status of the nuclear winter hypothesis	p. 218
11 Global effects of land-use/land-cover change and vegetation dynamics	p. 220
11.1 Land-use/land-cover changes	p. 220
11.2 Historical land-use change	p. 221
11.3 Global perspective	p. 224
11.4 Quantifying land-use/land-cover forcing of climate	p. 232
11.5 Atmosphere-vegetation interactions	p. 237
11.6 The abrupt desertification of the Sahara	p. 240
Epilogue	p. 243
E.1 The importance and underappreciation of natural variability	p. 243
E.2 The dangers of overselling	p. 244
E.3 The capricious administration of science and technology	p. 247
E.4 Scientific credibility and advocacy	p. 248
E.5 Should society wait for hard scientific evidence?	p. 250
E.6 Politics and science	p. 251
E.7 Conclusions	p. 252
References	p. 255
Index	p. 305

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